Building curriculum for flexibility and retention

Dr Craig Bellamy BA (Hons) MA Ph.D

3 May 2012, La Trobe University

Landscape (the daunting

tasks)

Retention (transform practice)

Teaching /Flexibility

(responding)

Landscape: government policies

Deregulation

1995 age group; 45% enter HE

(sometime in their life)

Government equity plans (focus upon

success and retention of poorly

represented groups. Ie. rural)

Landscape: Low Socio-Economic Student background

Gap in the research on ‘trigger points’ of withdrawal: most work done on first year experience

Less confident in their ability to succeed

Weaker personal interest in their subjects (more interested in an income)

Lower socio-economic groups believe vocational training of more benefit (McInnis, James, 2004)

Landscape: Attrition, impact upon institution

• Adverse publicity for an institution with poor record of completing students

• Waste of resources into recruiting students• Institutions that seek to enrol students from

disadvantaged backgrounds must back up efforts to encourage sustained success (York, Longden, 2004) (La Trobe’s services particularly good!)

Why students leave their programs (Yorke, Longden, 2004)

Flawed decision-making about entering their program

Students’ experience of the program

and the institution generally

Failure to cope with the

demands of the program

Events that impact upon the

students lives outside the institution

Retention: Key institutional strategies

Marketing and recruitment

Transition management (student orientation)

Teaching and learning

Student support programs

Development of learning communities

Marketing and recruitment

Transition management (student orientation)

Teaching and learning

Student support programs

Development of learning communities

Retention: Key institutional strategies

Teaching and learning (and retention)

“ A policy focus on student success in higher education through teaching, learning and assessment, and through institutional support services, is likely to lead to better retention than a focus on retention itself” Yorke, Longden, 2004.

(ie. it is better to look at the entire program rather than one aspect of it in isolation)

Teaching and learning (and retention)

• It must be important; it must have some value to the learner

• The learner needs to expect success when engaging the learning tasks (Biggs, Tang, 2007)

Designing Quality Teaching and Learning (Biggs, Tang)

Teaching in such a way to bring out the structure of

the topic or subject

Teaching to elicit an active response from students

(ie. presenting problems, questions)

Build on what students already know (ie. the

‘public sphere’)

Depth of subject (important in internet age where there is too much

broad information!)

Explicit aims and intended outcomes for assessment

Teaching and learning (and retention)

• What is the teaching/learning climate? (ie. negative reinforcement is worse than positive)

• Applauding undergraduate success! (partly through assessment)

• Teacher feedback has a powerful effect on students expectation of success (Biggs, Tang)

• Peer assessment (grading with rubrics) through a ‘flexible learning’ approach.

Flexible learning: methods of teaching and learning (mixed teaching methods/activities)

Flexible Learning

Online Delivery

Part-time study

Intensive Study

(summer schools)

Mixed mode attendance

(online etc.)

Flexible study (advantages)

• cater for a broader range of student learning styles• develop independent and self-directed learning

approaches in our students• improve access to university study for students who live

some distance from the University campuses• cater for students who have family and work

commitments• broaden options for students on each of our campuses

as well as nationally and offshore• open up our courses to a wider market (from Utas)

Different modes of delivery (online)

How can retention/ flexibility be promoted at a program/faculty level?

Assemble relevant information to support targeted reform through a program of activities (ie. what PD activities are needed? And evaluated?)

Reforms must be adapted to each teacher and teaching strengths (ie. distributed models; and abundance of research on SoLT), Committees, early adopters, champions etc.

Why didn’t that work? What can I do to make my students more active...

Teachers@work (RMIT) (transformative reflection)

THATCamp (A ‘learning community’ for the Digital Humanities)

Flexibility

Retention

Teaching

Summary/questions?

Issues are complex in making students successful!

‘Flexibility’ doesn’t always impact in a positive way upon retention (need to be considered within good teaching). Teaching is a social process

Synergetic approach to evidence gathering, retention, flexibility, teaching and learning, and policy making and implementation (as in Faculty Graduate Capabilities project)

No grand theory or one size fits all to effective teachers; teachers understands what works and what doesn’t work with their own content and context (but good approaches can be shared...a need to be flexible and willing to experiment)